On The Road To Somewhere

We set off relatively early, through the late rush hour traffic of the capital, which turned out to be less busy than Oxted on a Saturday. Stopping at the nearby supermarket to pick up some food for lunch, Emma did a good job of parking The Tank in the car park, managing to only stick out a few feet more than other nearby cars. Parking charges to be jealous of - only N$5 (about 30p) for 2 hours parking in a secure car park.

We said a temporary goodbye to Windhoek. We also said goodbye to tarmac.We knew that we would encounter gravel roads on our travels. We didn't realise that this meant the majority of the 3,000 or so km we would travel on our holiday. The long, straight, empty, tarmac roads gave way quickly to long, straight, empty, gravel roads and we had to get used to driving on gravel. Generally pretty easy, though took more concentration as lumps and bumps often appeared without warning. We also had to get used to 'corrugated' or 'washboard' roads at times, which were pretty uncomfortable to drive on, and a car with not much tread on its tyres tended to want to drift a lot!

Once we got used to driving on the road surface, we could relax a bit. The temptation to do 'Top Gear' style drifting round corners was high, especially as the gravel roads left a large and expanding dust trail behind us, but we were after all driving The Tank with naff tyres in a country where the speed limit was only 100kph on gravel roads, and the hire car company recommended only 80kph, so we behaved.

This all meant that the 350km today took a total of 7 hours, including numerous stops for taking in the scenery, investigating wildlife, having lunch by the side of the road etc. There was no traffic - we often travelled for 20 or 30 minutes without seeing another vehicle at all. And this was a main road!

We spotted a large beetle-like creature on the road. Then another, and another. So we stopped when we saw another and investigated it. I'd not seen one like it before, so photos were needed. We later found out it was an armoured cricket - harmless, though with the ability to give a fairly impressive nip, so I'm glad I didn't attempt to pick it up. It can also shoot out blood to deter predators, so all in all a bit weird!

We spent the next few km trying to avoid running them over. But swerving The Tank on a gravel road was not a good idea, and the insects got more and more numerous, to the point where avoiding hitting one just meant you hit another, so in the end we gave up trying. Reading up on them later, it turns out that they eat anything, including eating their squashed friends and often the roads get covered with large patches of squashed crickets, as one gets killed, others congregate to eat it, and they themselves get squashed, and the cycle continues. So all in all a bit stupid too.

A lovely trip down the Spreetshoogte Pass with great views, we were amazed at how well maintained the gravel roads were, though with so little traffic I guess the maintenance isn't too onerous. We passed a road working team who's job seemed to be to walk along the road throwing off any large rocks that had made their way on the road. Their mobile home followed them along the road, and they gave us a friendly wave as we passed, slowing down so we didn't cover them in dust!

Our next stop was for me to photograph a large and impressive sociable weaver bird nest in a nearby tree. These seem to be everywhere in Namibia. The birds nest together, forming large (and heavy!) combined nests, with each pair having their own entrance below the nest. The entrances are at the bottom of the nest to prevent snakes for having easy access, and the tops of the large nests are sloped downwards, to hopefully ensure the snakes slide off before they can get at the eggs or young. It doesn't always work, apparently.

An enjoyable, but quite tiring, journey ended at our lodge nearby Sossusvlei. We turned into the driveway with some relief, only to find the driveway was 7.5km long, on very rough roads. But we finally arrived at a lovely lodge, with a nearby oryx (aka gemsbok) posing for us as we arrived. We were staying here 2 nights, in a nice room with a view over the plains. Not many animals wandering around - some oryx, some springbok and a pair of starlings with brilliant yellow eyes that sat on our veranda with us, chirping away, before flying up into the eves above and pooing on the chairs.

An open-air braai for dinner (BBQ) which is very African, and very meat-focussed! However, they had a veggie option and we ate a hearty meal, complete with Namibian beer (Windhoek draft) eating under the stars on top of the main lodge on a very warm evening with a lovely full moon. Staff were very welcoming and friendly. We noted (not for the last time on this trip) that the owners and managers tended to be white, and South African, whilst the workers were black and local.

A 4:45am start for our guided trip into Sossusvlei tomorrow. Was that a good idea?

Places stayed: Villa Vista, Windhoek; Desert Homestead Outpost, Sossusvlei
Places visited: None, really